An elderly couple in Australia were killed in a “terrorism incident” carried out by a man wielding a knife, who was later shot by police, officials said Friday.
The bodies of Maurice Anthill, 87, and Zoe Anthill, 86, were found in their Brisbane home on Thursday – hours after the suspect, Raghe Abdi, 22, was murdered by police.
Abdi – who was out on bail – threatened police with a knife before he was fatally shot on a highway on the outskirts of Brisbane.
Tracy Linford, deputy commissioner of Queensland’s state police, declined to detail how the eighty-year-old couple died, but said homicide detectives found evidence that Abdi had been in the house.
Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said Abdi was a known extremist who acted alone.
“We had no choice but to label this as a terrorism incident,” Carroll told reporters.
The ISIS-influenced killer was arrested in May 2019 on suspicion that he was attempting to join extremists while attempting to leave Brisbane Airport for Somalia.
He was released without charge due to insufficient evidence, but his passport was canceled.
A month later, Abdi faced more charges, including refusing to give detectives the access code to his phone.
He was out on bail and forced to wear a GPS tracking device – which he cut off before he was shot.
With pole wires